While head coach Les Miles addressed first the performance of the team's two scholarship quarterbacks in Thursday's scrimmage, in two other areas presenting some of the marquee competition of the spring Miles seemed deliberately opaque.

One of those two is the starter at offensive right tackle, where the gargantuan sophomore contestants are Joseph Barksdale, 6-4, 310 pounds, and Jarvis Jones, 6-7, 294 pounds. Lately it seems that Barksdale has gotten the edge, but Miles said the two split time evenly with the first, second and third teams on Thursday.

"I think they're both very capable guys and I expect that to play out throughout the spring," he said.

The second area concerns the secondary, where LSU lost three of four starters from the 2007 national championship team. While the lineup with the first team at practice has had Curtis Taylor and Harry Coleman at safety and Chris Hawkins and Jai Eugene on the corners, Miles did not mention any of those four after the scrimmage.

Instead, he praised tackles made by Phelon Jones and John Williams, a pair of redshirt freshmen.